Besides talking about turkey, shopping and football, over the Thanksgiving weekend, Rockfordians were also trying to figure out what were those loud noises that a lot of people heard heard early Sunday morning. We now have some possible explanations.

Around 2:00 a.m. early Sunday morning my social media feed was filled with people asking "what's that noise?" Many described the noise as a crazy loud 'boom.' Many people reported that houses and windows shook, as a result.

So what was it? No one is absolutely certain as to the cause. Rockford was not alone as these loud 'booms' were heard around the world over the long weekend.

Explanation 1: Navy aircraft. A report of a US Navy F-35C was being tested. It is theorized the aircraft caused the booms. The military often conduct supersonic flights. However, the sonic booms are rarely heard or felt at ground level. There is no confirmed report of this aircraft flying over the Rockford area on Sunday morning

Explanation 2: Meteor Showers: A report cited meteors from the Leonid meteor shower were bursting in the sky. It is alleged these meteors caused the loud noises.

Explanation 3: Earthquakes: Hey, we do live just north of the New Madrid fault line, so the possibility of earthquakes is definitely real.

Alien invasion? Not gonna go there, yet.

We still don't know the cause of these loud sounds, but officials are still looking into it.

The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities, that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside.